Mark Dugrenier

Starting out in the food and hospitality industry at the age of 17, Mark has gained experience and knowledge of the restaurant and catering businesses from myriad sources. In past employment and prior to starting Refer-A-Chef Catering, Mark was the Banquet Chef at the Delta King located in Downtown Sacramento. In the desire to continue his culinary career, he chose to move into the Hotel business and was highly decorated and moved into the Executive Chef position at both the Ramada Inn and Beverly Garland hotels. Working positions from a dishwasher to his current status of Executive Chef for Refer-A-Chef Catering and Event Planning, Inc. and Cheffery’s An American Bistro, Mark applies his knowledge of the trade and continuously exceeds presentation standards and marks. He is highly decorated and has won numerous awards for his skills for cooking, overall presentation, and menu design for both his restaurant and catering business.

In 2001 Mark and Jeffery Gordy started Refer-A-Chef Catering and Event Planning, Inc. As a renowned Chef, it was not hard for Mark to attain a clientele for business as his experience and technique shined on its own. After running a very prosperous business for 6 years, both Mark and Jeffery started pursuing their dream of opening a restaurant and expanding their business to the corporation that is booming today. After a long awaited construction completed, Cheffery’s An American Bistro opened for business on August 9th, 2007. This opening had a long awaited anticipation from the community in which we cannot thank enough for their support.

As the Executive Chef, Mark continuously finds ways of improving our menu and customer satisfaction with our products. Striving for perfection is not only a characteristic of Mark, but also a standard he sets for the employees of Refer-A-Chef Catering and Event Planning, Inc.

Jeffery Gordy

Cooking has always been one of Jeffery’s passions in life. It is this passion that took him to the Leader Wolff Culinary Academy and graduated with degrees in Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts. Jeffery had such an aptitude for the culinary arts that he was the only student in history to have had an internship and externship with Mark Norman and ran National University’s 2 restaurants and their catering program for 2 years.

After he left Leader Wolff Culinary Academy, Jeffery met Mark Dugrenier while working at the Delta King located in Downtown Sacramento. There they forged a very strong business relationship where they continued their experience in the food and hospitality industry together at the Ramada and Beverly Garden Hotels. At these locations, while Mark was cooking in the kitchen, Jeffery was the Executive Director of Catering and Sales, where he applied the managerial skills attained at Leader Wolff to attain and retain clientele and manage these aspects of business for the hotels.

John Hayden

As the Executive Assistant to Jeffery Gordy and General Manager of Cheffery’s An American Bistro, John’s daily tasks include event planning for Refer-A-Chef Catering and Event Planning, Inc. and overseeing the daily operations of Cheffery’s.

As a past employee of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and School Business Services of California (SBSC), John attained an extensive knowledge of Project and Program Management from working in multiple levels of Management. Though he may no longer be worrying about state and federal budgets, policy restrictions for state and federal legislative issues and programs such as the California State Medi-Cal program, or raising unrestricted state and federal funding for Special Education programs in California schools, he certainly worries about keeping every event he’s planning on time, on scope, within budgetary constraints, and is finally able to express his creative side in a fun way with our Clientele!

Taken under the wing of Jeffery Gordy, Director of Events and Co-Owner, John was taught how to design events with the same sense of passion he has for our catering business. Going beyond our customer’s expectations to present an event designed with creativity is of paramount importance to our organization; it’s what we thrive off of! He takes these same skills and abilities and puts them to use in our restaurant, we’re he believes customer satisfaction is simply a bench mark to continuously strive to exceed for our patrons. In either case, it is not only John’s responsibility to ensure our customers are satisfied with our products and services, but his hope that when guests leave an event designed by Refer-A-Chef Catering and Event Planning, Inc. or Cheffery’s An American Bistro, they’ll leave with a hunger…for more!